Future of Green Building Materials

Think of the future. What comes to mind? Flying cars perhaps? What about robots? Most people would probably go to the extreme and think of these two things. But, why don’t we take a look at some green building materials of the future? These 6 materials are seeing increasing usage in the building industry, so their entrance into mainstream home construction might not be so far away from our present time after all.

SensiTile

You wake up in the middle of the night. On your way to the kitchen, you hit your knee on table, but not before you ran into three walls. Well, what if you had tiles that lit up when you walked? With SensiTile, this is possible. You can also have these installed on your ceilings and bathroom.

Recycled Steel

The most basic and fundamental aspect of building a house is the frame. Forget all the trees it takes for this, if we used recycled steel we’d have not only a stronger frame, but it’d only take about six scrapped cars to make this happen. Don’t think this is a house the size of a dime either. We’re talking a 2,000-square-foot home! Save a tree or 40 and go with recycled steel if building a new home.

Straw Bales

Instead of burning the by-product of grains, we can use those straws to build. The California Straw Building Association said if straw bales are kept dry, they can last for thousands of years. It also works great with stucco giving it incredible insulation.

Bamboo

By far, bamboo is probably the unexpected top green building materials. Growing at a rate of 60 to 100 cm per day, this sustainable and easily replenished resource becomes a much more appealing building block than trees, not to mention that it’s earthquake and cyclone-resistant. Bamboo is found in all types of climates and terrains, making it a potentially universal product (in fact, it grows so quickly in some environments that it’s even sometimes considered an invasive species). There’s a clear indicator that this versatile material is already on its way to the top: It’s already being used as furniture, bamboo shades for windows, medicine, and musical instruments to name a few.

Richlite

Made of 70 percent recycled paper, treating it with resin, and then baking it makes Richlite extremely easy to produce. If you’re thinking the phrase “made of paper” must indicate a weak building material, then think again. Richlite is almost impossible to distinguish from wood. Replace any surface with this and do both yourself and the environment a major favor.

Self-Fixing Concrete

We’ve taken a look at a few different building materials within your household, but let’s take a look at a material that could potentially not only save people money, but also large corporations with multiple buildings and even the government with things like bridges and sidewalks. Self-fixing concrete works with the sunlight, as the protective coating fixes the cracks before they get too large to handle.

The days of “step on the crack and break your mom’s back” are long gone. Just envision a future where our self-fixing concrete coating is inexpensive (and wait even better!) won’t freeze in cold temperatures. Saving us billions and eco-friendly? All aboard!

These are just a few of the eco-friendly building materials we can see in the near future. Which others do have caught your eye?